There's a lot to like in House of Ashes. It can look great (but also a bit ropey at points), the acting is largely excellent, and your actions (or lack of) can really impact the story. Yet, the game element is lacking, which in turn makes the gameplay sequences where you're in proper control end up lacking in scares. This is a fun time, especially if played in a group or online with a friend, but I was more afraid of button prompts than the monsters.

Ultimately, the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Siege of Paris DLC is a worthy add-on with a good story and great emphasis on more interactive gameplay. While its narrative stakes feel relatively low, Eivor has real impetus in how everything unfolds throughout the well-paced plot.

Evil Dead: The Game is a good time, albeit demanding (it appears single-player missions have everyone struggling), but it truly lets itself down by not having basic accessibility settings available to players. The game itself is certainly impressive in terms of its fresh gameplay and remarkable graphics, and there’s good fun to be had for fans of Evil Dead and Sam Raimi. However, horror fans without an affinity towards the series will likely find more fun in alternative multiplayer horror games, and they’ll probably find more accessibility-friendly games, too.

Zombie Army 4 is the reanimated corpse of gaming’s past, stitched together from the best bits of Sniper Elite. It’s a B-movie pastiche stuffed with classic movie references and thousands of heads (and bollocks) to pop. But most importantly, it’s a new game. A new, fairly-enjoyable video game in 2020 – what a concept.

It’s closer to puddle deep when it could be a lake or ocean given its cool premise. Or, to put it in a more Atomfall way, it’s a pasty that doesn’t quite deliver a filling that matches how tasty the pastry looks.

An extraordinarily competent racer, which makes sense.

For the first time in years, Need For Speed has remembered why people used to play it so religiously, and recognised the more recent elements that put them off. I’ll take a missed checkpoint or a dodgy police bust now and again in exchange for a return to Underground’s unlock structure and tuner fetishism; for Hot Pursuit’s high stakes chases; for an EA release in 2019 without an RNG element designed to slow progress.

When Nintendo gets these sort of lifestyle ‘event’ games right, they’re always a slam dunk. Sometimes, the accuracy of MotionPlus is missed. One can see how Nintendo could've done more new, and included more all-new stuff. And yet... Nintendo Switch Sports is pretty much exactly what I wanted. I can see how it'd be one of my absolute favourite games of the year. That's Nintendo's magic power.

Like it or not, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora feels like the perfect companion piece to James Cameron’s movies: it’s big but often intimate. Savage but calm. Familiar but charming. Even without playing a single minute of it, you should know whether it’s something you want to play. If you decide to make the jump, I suggest letting go of cheap analogies and using Na’vi instincts first and gamer brain second.

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is a B-movie game. It’s loud, dumb, and full of fun. You have to ignore a lot – a lot – of issues if you want to extract the joy from its chaotic heart, but once you commit, toy around with the weapons, penetrate its poorly-explained mechanics and forgive Jack for his one-dimensional personality, you’re left with a game that’s part Devil May Cry, part Nioh, and part Face/Off. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to play that?

Overall, it’s the touches of mischief which make Romeo is a Dead Man stand out in a ‘good enough’ landscape dominated by Live Service and competitive games. Stuffed with one-off moments and boisterous action honed over nearly 20 years of carnage, it’s a game that never sits still, never settles for boring but functional and dies with a live hand grenade slipping from its fingertips.

I enjoyed playing Hot Wheels Unleashed a lot. The racing is straight up fun thanks to a top notch handling model that really makes the most of some impressive powersliding mechanics. But I can't help but wonder what could have been had we not got a game brimming with DLC and tied, to its detriment, to uninspired track environments.

All in all, I came away pleasantly surprised by The Knight Witch. At a time where so many games are vying for your time and attention, a neatly packed present of an indie, clearly made by a team that knows what it's doing and a quirk not found elsewhere makes for a great refresher. While I don’t believe it quite makes the cut as a classic, nor will it make many game of the year lists, it is still well worth your time. Personally, I think Super Mega Team is a studio I'll be keeping track of from here one out.

Judged on its own terms, Call of Duty: Vanguard offers a solid, albeit predictable campaign, an engaging multiplayer with deep progression systems and satisfying gunplay, and a Zombies mode that will only serve as a minor distraction in its current state.

Like real world F1 at the moment, F1 24’s a bit of a mixed bag, but it feels like, if it can be built on going forwards, it could be the starting point for something you won’t feel quite as much like you can skip out on and not miss much.

It feels like Capcom couldn’t quite decide what it wanted Dead Rising 4 to be. Should it be a return to roots and the style of the first game, as the use of Frank and Wilamette suggests? Should it be a Saint’s Row style casual sandbox fun, gleefully nuts without much restraint, as the design and combat is? Should it be something new, a new vision for the series? Dead Rising 4 tries to be all three, and while it’s by no means a bad game little about it stands out as a result.

Perhaps the best thing I can say is that this game feels more like the anime than ever. Part of that is down to the art, which continues to advance closer to the TV show. Part of that is down to the sense of openness, which imparts a real feeling that this is your adventure, and not just a rollercoaster where you experience somebody else’s. On balance, Legends: Areus probably just pips it based on the novelty factor of its entirely different approach, but Scarlet & Violet is a delightful vibe – and that vibe is difficult to diminish. What a year to be a Pokemon fan!

Resurgence is the best Star Trek game since Elite Force. To expand on that, I’d say that Elite Force is the better video game based on Star Trek, because it’s a decent shooter (and there’s a handheld photon launcher, which is basically the most gleefully stupid thing ever conceived). But Resurgence is the best Star Trek Game. As an interactive adaptation of the popular television franchise, it succeeds. And though there are areas where it could do with more polish, where better decisions could have been made, and where I wish there was extra money to spend, all of that melts away when I consider that as someone who grew up watching The Next Generation, playing this game felt like returning home.

All that matters at the time of writing is the launch experience, though. Minecraft Legends is gorgeous-looking, and is thrilling in how it presents the Minecraft world from another angle. It also has a solid backbone for a captivating RTS. It just doesn’t go far enough, however - and the final result is a game that struggled to hold my attention the deeper in I got. It’ll be decent Game Pass fodder - but I can’t help but feel like this should’ve been so much more. It certainly won’t be for everyone, though I expect Minecraft-obsessed kids to have a blast regardless.

In truth, I’m not the biggest thinker when it comes to media. I watch a film, read a book, play a game, and take what’s happened at face value. If meaning is hidden behind a 10k-post Reddit thread, then, well, maybe it wasn’t conveyed well enough. Somerville doesn’t have this problem. It’s affecting in all the right ways, and a game I really can’t recommend strongly enough.

Perhaps the best thing I can say is that this game feels more like the anime than ever. Part of that is down to the art, which continues to advance closer to the TV show. Part of that is down to the sense of openness, which imparts a real feeling that this is your adventure, and not just a rollercoaster where you experience somebody else’s. On balance, Legends: Areus probably just pips it based on the novelty factor of its entirely different approach, but Scarlet & Violet is a delightful vibe – and that vibe is difficult to diminish. What a year to be a Pokemon fan!

Over 22 central story quests, and a clutch of side objectives, New Dawn is surprisingly good at throwing up varied tasks.

The lack of seamless transitions between gameplay and cutscenes means you’re often staring at a black screen as the game interrupts you, the story is predictable, your activities are repetitive, and the technical issues – frame rate drops, freezes, and myriad bugs – are a constant annoyance. While it’s still slightly better than most recent Xbox One exclusives, Days Gone just isn’t anywhere near the quality of the majority of PS4 first-party releases.

To a certain type of player, Legend of Mana is likely to be considered the perfect remaster. It touches up the visuals, but not too much. It makes quality-of-life changes, but preserves the original design and difficulty – warts and all. Some may find that preservation detrimental, with this twenty year-old game showing its age – but it does also make this the new definitive way to experience a classic.

Ultimately, the game's story is a fun one that does touch on some heavier themes, too. But it's the collective action at Spino that helps it feel special. Sand Land feels like a game that you can't believe wasn't originally released on the PS2. It's the fact that you can so strongly feel Toriyama within the game that that results in it feeling like a wonderful, imperfect send-off for one of the most influential artists ever. It won't knock your socks off, and I doubt it will be part of the game of the year conversations further down the road. But I don't care. I'm just happy to step into an old, but new, Toriyama world once last time.

If you’re after action and full-on horror, The Medium will likely leave you wanting, and considerably so. This is more of a slow burn, the twisted plot unravelling over six to eight hours. I found the pacing to be ideal, with the game throwing just enough moments of high intensity into the mix to keep things interesting. There is a big bad of sorts, but don’t expect traditional boss fights, with encounters being designed to be intimidating and scary rather than difficult. Bloober clearly wanted everyone to be able to see this story through to its conclusion.

There's a melancholia to Sable, wrapped up in the ruined cities and gigantic skeletons dotting its landscapes, but this is balanced with an infectious core of positivity running through the game. What it lacks in drama, it more than makes up for with sheer creativity and grandeur, leaving you with a sense of serenity much-needed and appreciated in these bizarre times. However, it all circles back to the joy of discovery: you might not know exactly what you’ll find as you peel back the layers of Midden, but it’s bound to be interesting.

Labo VR isn’t likely to set the world of VR on fire, but as a cheap VR option that’s a family friendly way to explore this growing area of gaming this new Toy-Con kit feels like a clever, worthwhile addition to the Switch’s weird and wonderful cardboard world. It may also very well be the first time Labo has truly made sense to me. It’s classic Nintendo ingenuity, with classic Nintendo results: just pure fun.

Detective Pikachu doesn’t offer an enormous amount of actual game to play, but what’s there is hugely charming and entertaining.

Lords of the Fallen is a game of uneven quality. At its best, it offers level design, bosses, and combat that’s generally up there among the best Souls-likes. At its – more often – worst, it leans hard on quantity over quality, and a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes those games challenging. My issues with its balance and difficulty can improve with patches, and my misgivings about its design pitfalls are the sort of thing that sequels improve on all the time. It’s left me wanting to play Lords of the Fallen 2.

Flawed though it may be, sometimes a distinctly B-tier game is exactly what the doctor ordered – especially at this time of year, in a sea of mega-hyped triple-A. You have to know what you’re getting into, accepting the poor narrative and slightly botched execution of some of its cleverer ideas, but Code Vein still has a recent amount to like. Come for the combat and the intriguing blood code system – and stay for it. The rest? Well, hopefully it’ll be better next time.

It’s another year, another pretty mixed bag, even if it does feel like things might be trending in a slightly more positive direction. Here’s the thing though, like those Seahawks, things’ll only keep running in place unless Madden can offer some more meaningful change going forwards. Here’s hoping having the series’ cheeky sibling back on the block, with its marching bands and moral quandaries about exploitation, can help spur that shift.

There’s nothing wrong with a little nostalgia, but even by the time I’d faced down the Arch-illager in his tower – no more than a handful of hours after starting – I was already sick of Redstone Golem mini-bosses, and Dungeons seemed to have exhausted its borrowed ideas. Like Diablo, this is a game designed for multiple playthroughs on increasing difficulties, but few players will feel compelled to return to a seam that’s all dried up after a single day’s exploration.

All in all the game is a blast. It is a bit janky, and very much a love it or hate it ordeal. Some of you will bounce off it in a few games, and some of you will get a giggle out of how explosively violent it can be. Fans of Let it Die bizzarely are in the same boat, and their love will depend greatly on their infactuation with the general gameplay experience. It strikes me as a game made by people who wanted to create something distinct for the sake of variety in a popular genre saturated with familiar traits. People who are probably fun to drink with. Not much about Deathverse: Let it Die is familiar, and it’s free. So like, try it out!

In truth, Scorn doesn’t tell a particularly fascinating story, but it hardly matters; the way in which it’s told is done to perfection, and provides an incredibly refreshing horror experience that truly gets under your skin.

It’s the sort of arcadey sports experience that doesn’t really happen any more. Most sports games now are simulations – so I’m so glad to get another game that carries the spirit of older, arcadey, more silly sports games. The adventure mode’s shortcomings don’t dent that significantly enough to stop me from recommending Mario Golf: Super Rush – but just don’t go in expecting an all-time-great sports story mode.

Vampyr is a remarkable game that gives me genuine hope for the future of single-player RPGs. What it lacks in polish, it makes up for in ambition.

This isn’t to say there isn’t a good game oozing within the sticky flesh of this Frankenstein, though; it just feels like it’s not what Striking Distance wanted it to be. It’s not the next step in horror gaming, the evolution of Dead Space, or a proposition unlike anything you’ve seen before – it’s the opposite. An amalgam, less than the sum of its parts, whose main focus becomes overwrought and frustrating by the time you’re halfway through its short run-time. The scariest thing about The Callisto Protocol, sadly, is all the potential that’s been wasted on a small moon in Jupiter’s orbit.

Speaking as someone who has played Until Dawn on PS4 many, many times and counts it as one of their favourite games — while I won't go so far as to say that I like this new version more than the original, I certainly don't like it less either. Both versions have their minor pros and cons when compared with one another, but in the end, it's all Until Dawn: a game that is simply too good and too important to be locked away and left behind as a relic of a bygone console generation.

If you buy Immortals of Aveum, know that there is a good time here waiting for you. However, I deem it likely that it'll be on sale rather soon. If you're starving for some magic in your FPS pick it up, but even with some mystical flair and an admirable attempt at bringing mystic arts to a very gun-heavy genre, Immortals of Aveum ultimately fails to reach the heights of your Bulletstorms or Wolfenstiens.

I still would recommend The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me on release if you can handle the technical issues at present. If Supermassive Games manages to implement some updates and fix the performance issues, then I’d perhaps even recommend it – highly! – to seasoned horror fans. In spite of its flaws, The Devil in Me tells a riveting tale of a horrific killer in a thoughtful manner, opens up important discussions about human obsession with sanctifying spectacles, and it shows great potential for the future of the series. It’s just a shame about… everything else.

Personally, I’m genuinely excited for future Dark Pictures instalments. And I’m still playing Man of Medan, figuring out its hidden traps and machinations, despite my frustrations with it.

From a pure level design perspective, it’s a huge improvement over Wolfenstein 2. Unfortunately, it seems to have forgotten a lot of what made both New Order and The New Colossus such great games in the process.

So overall, with all things considered, is Rainbow Six: Extraction a good game? Yeah, it’s alright. For my tastes, it doesn’t quite go far enough in some places, and it has lost a bit of that identity that makes Rainbow Six games special, but if you’ve got a few friends who are curious about it then you’ll have a blast jumping into it. It retains that slow, methodical gameplay that is so addictive to a certain kind of player, so I have no doubts that this game will remain a weekly venture for a community out there, somewhere. Whether or not it can retain that playerbase is something we’ll have to keep an eye on.

But if you’re hoping to scare yourself senseless and expose yourself to plenty of shocking scenarios as a reagent for the Murkoff Corporation, with or without friends, The Outlast Trials is undoubtedly worth its retail cost of £24.99 / $29.99 (via Steam) at launch, but if you’re expecting a game that you’ll replay well into 2024 and beyond, I’d temper your expectations.

Sea of Thieves just needs more. It needs more ways to play, more mission variety, more enemy variants than just different coloured skeletons, and more meaningful progression. If these things don’t appear soon, I can see player numbers dropping off substantially after a short while. When it is the players themselves that create the game’s standout moments, potential player drop-off is a huge problem.

You can see the make-up of a good game at the heart of Thymesia, but it seems the team was only capable of delivering a prototype; the building blocks of something greater, before it tapped out. You can easily spend ten-ish hours with the game, and potentially longer if you decide to experiment with builds, but at $25 (or $22.49 with the launch week discount), it might be a hard sell.

It’s a suspense thriller that could’ve been written at any point in the last century, were it not for the gripping addition of player choice. In a month that’s seen Man of Medan push interactive fiction into multiplayer, and Telling Lies build on the investigative purpose of Her Story, there’s no comparable innovation here beyond those tactile controls that feel like you’re manipulating scenes in real-time. But there are shocking truths buried at Delphi House, and maybe that’s enough to soothe the soul on a long Sunday.

With so many other incredible JRPGs released in 2021, it’s hard to recommend Astria Ascending. It does have a very pretty artstyle, which is what will draw most players initially. The battle system and customization options can be enjoyable to tinker around with, but the lackluster story and unpleasant cast of characters really bog down the whole experience.

I am hopeful that 2042 will be a more interesting Battlefield game at some point next year, but having been through varying degrees of rough launches with this series - from BF 2142 through BF 5 - I can’t say I have the stamina to perform the dance of chastising DICE for technical problems and missing features, only to turn around and celebrate when the game is inevitably ‘good now, actually’ a year into it.

This one game about an entitled goat does everything I wish the original Goat Simulator did and more. The goatfits, the whimsical joy of discovering a level like the Cellar of Doom, and witnessing just how much disarray one uncontrollable goat can cause will make Goat Simulator 3 one of the best co-op games to sit back and reset with. Watch this space, because me and Pilgor are quite the unstoppable duo – and this won’t be the last you see of us.

That’s how it goes while you inhabit Just Cause 4. Constant iridescent glimmers of the game it wants to be, tethered by a grappling hook cord to mechanical clunkiness.

Exoprimal will be a rollercoaster of surprises for the majority of players. Making your way through the fifty-or-so matches it takes to hit credits, experiencing all the spectacle on display in this curveball of a game, is in my opinion worth the cost of admission for Game Pass users, and perhaps at a discount for all others. It'll remain a presence on my PS5 home screen, for now at least.

One thing I really appreciate about DioField is its length, however. Which is to say: it’s relatively short. By strategy RPG standards, anyway – Disgaea this ain’t. You can blast through the main narrative, with a smattering of side content, in around 20 hours. You probably won’t want to do much more side content, anyway, as it’s relatively uninspired. In this, to me DioField reads as a relatively short and experimental game. Which I’m fine with. To some, however, this might instead come over as bad value for money.

Look, if you want to jump around and punch people, there are hundreds of other games. If you’re really keen to play a DC action game, featuring a modern and admittedly brave step away from the big black bat, then Gotham Knights is fine enough. It’s just that in the shadow of former Batman titles, in the shadow of Batman himself, it doesn’t impress. It disappoints.

Despite these annoyances, despite the fact that it’s a game designed with decades-old sensibilities, I enjoyed my time with it. It doesn’t have the conclusion we’ve been waiting two decades for and it barely drives the story forward at all, but the climactic battle is as satisfying as that 70-man tussle in the first game’s harbour.

It’s still a really exciting, interesting and different fighter. That last bit is crucial – despite similarities to the Gundam games, there’s nothing else quite like Dissidia on the market, and some will certainly find themselves hooked on its unique, hectic type of battle.

On the whole, Kirby’s Dream Buffet is a neat idea on the surface. When brought to life, it could’ve genuinely been a contender for one of the Switch’s top party games had it featured a little more variation, and some better multiplayer support. That said, the future of Kirby is now very much cemented in 3D, and I still look forward to where the pink puff ball ends up once they’ve decided that they can’t stomach another strawberry.

A-Train: All Aboard! Tourism won’t be for everyone. That’s not just because it’s part of a niche genre – it’s also because of the way it’s structured and the time commitment to truly get into it and dig deep into the ‘good stuff’. It never quite goes off the rails, but sometimes you’ll wish the journey could be a little quicker – and not everyone will be able to stick it out. If you manage that – and more fervent fans of transport sims should be able to do that – there’s a bit of a hidden gem here.

Those who have always wanted to know more about how Dead by Daylight’s cast of characters came to be trapped in a never-ending nightmare by The Entity will be wholly pleased to finally have some answers, especially if the DBD-stylised achievements and endless Easter eggs didn’t already have you foaming at the mouth. If you’re a fan of Dead by Daylight or The Dark Pictures Anthology, The Casting of Frank Stone is an absolutely must-play for you. Even then, those unfamiliar with the series’ will still find something to appreciate during this entertaining, albeit fleeting, experience

It’s clear that Respawn still has the chops to make a quality Medal of Honor game. There’s a lot of heart here, and an attention to detail that must be admired. With that said, it’s clear the studio had troubles accomplishing its goals in VR – and the result is a curious VR experience that’s worth experiencing, but equally is nothing like a VR system seller. It stands strides behind Alyx – but then again, so do most VR games.

At the end of the day, you can have a decent amount of fun with Tower of Fantasy but it’s hard to see this title having much of a future. Just next week, Genshin Impact has its version 3.0 release which will drain most of the content-hungry gacha crowd away, while Zenless Zone Zero appears to be a looming giant that’ll present a post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting with great quality. Investing much time and money doesn’t feel right when the strengths of the title can’t overpower the overwhelming negatives.

Genesis Alpha One really grew on me over time. At first, I was easily frustrated by my own apparent idiocy and failure, but the longer I played, the more it made sense and I was proud of my all female crew on the USS Goldhawk. If you’re looking for a survival, space-exploration shooter that’s oddly relaxing, then Genesis Alpha One is for you.

Once you’re done with the five-hour campaign, the horrid state of the multiplayer will take centre stage. After a while, DICE’s attention to detail and stunning graphics will grow old, and you’ll be left doubting every encounter, every death. DICE’s biggest crime with Star Wars: Battlefront 2 isn’t that it added microtransactions, it’s that it forgot to make a game worth playing in the process.

The Crew 2 will be an incredible racer in a year’s time. It’s just not there right now, and it’s a shame. It’s full of potential, packed with a dizzying amount of variety, and you can’t help but be impressed by the massive world you inhabit. Unfortunately, The Crew 2 is just too inconsistent to fully recommend.

It’s initially interesting, but its bundle of ideas and systems stumble between clever and stupid, intuitive and clunky. Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey needs more time to evolve.

In the cut-throat race for your attention, Forspoken feels like a new IP that’s trying to run full pelt alongside heavy-hitting franchises from other big publishers. But it ploughs, shin-first, through every hurdle along the way. Its stuttering start belies a combat system that’s worth investing the effort to learn, but takes so long to get up to full speed that it’s already on borrowed time.

It’s an extremely funny, well-made, and once-traditional co-op game stuck in a live service cage that makes it sadder and more tiring as time goes on. Will the most demanding content in the game convince players to stick around and actually engage with the ‘numbers go up’ systems? I don’t think so, but I’m not writing it off just yet.

It’s a good step from a developer in Pixel Perfect Dude that’s gradually branching out from a background that mainly looks to be mobile-centric. With a bit of further refinement, it could turn into a very good addition to a mini-genre that’s proven through the likes of Art of Rally - though that is a very different game vibe-wise to #Drive Rally - that it has space for smaller studios offering quirky takes that help equal things up in our current sea of uber-realistic racing. However, if it’s going to hit those heights and build on what is a fun core as it races on down the early access trail, there’s some work to be done and maybe some lessons to be learned. [Early Access Review]

Necromunda often oscillates between a brilliant indie gem and a frustrating mid-tier game. Some moments, it’s the best Warhammer 40,000 action game – as you mow down enemies and watch their skulls explode to its rocking tunes, and look stylish doing it as you chain grappling hook shots and double-jumps. Other times, you miss a major story beat because an important character’s audio mix was too low, or feel like you’re pixel-hunting for enemies like it’s Warzone.

Disintegration is a warts-and-all exercise in genre nostalgia. The squad shooter has been missing in action for so long, and it’s a pleasure to have it back, with an even greater emphasis on tactics. But the gruff storytelling and rough edges are a reminder of what we were happy to leave behind in the mid ‘00s – along with ugg boots and The Black Eyed Peas’ My Humps.

There’s a good game under all the rubble and perplexing business decisions (such as not giving it out in PS Plus Extra), but why should you put up with all these frustrations when the game doesn’t a have distinct identity and there are better alternatives available for free right now?

Shattered Space was a chance for Bethesda to do some stuff that’d make quibbling about where you can spend five hours building a little house surrounded by mineral extractors a lot less important than it was in the base game. It was a golden opportunity to take the great ideas Bethesda’d had when devising a faction that’d grabbed players’ attention, and bring them to life with a bunch of either the classic Bethesda magic, or a new mojo that the studio could carry on into the great games it may well add to an already storied legacy in the future. Instead, anyone returning to Starfield after all the time they’ve spent with what remains a very marmite base game will likely be left feeling much the same way they did about all those hours when they get done playing what could have been a home run return to star form.

There’s a lot to like and a lot to laugh at in Saints Row as you raise hell around Santo Ileso with your unique boss. Collecting clothes and cars as you scale up your network of businesses is compelling as you accumulate wealth and solidify your spot at the top. But outside of the super set-piece main missions, it’s easy to bounce off the more repetitive elements of the open-world.

The glory days of Need for Speed seem a long way off. Need for Speed Payback is swamped with unnecessary guff when it should be stripped back and lean, the engine purring. There’s little to recommend in a game that feels unnecessary in so many areas, with so many blocks to actually having fun. There could be a decent game under here somewhere, but there’s no reason to hang around and find it.

I’d be extremely hesitant to recommend anyone part with $60 for it. There’s just not enough here. Still, all things considered, Crackdown 3 being this enjoyable represents a minor miracle, and I’d love to see what these teams are capable of with the franchise without being dicked around by corporate for half a decade.

At its heart, Comrades definitely has the right ideas. It has problems that appear to largely stem from being built as an afterthought atop a single-player focused game, but many of the ideas it has for a multiplayer Final Fantasy experience are pretty strong, and there’s a particularly impressive effort to tell a proper FF story in a multiplayer setting that pans out remarkably well. Oh, and it has a lovely new theme tune by Nobuo Uematsu. If this is indeed a test for the future, it’s a solid proof of concept – if not exactly a must-play at this point in time.

If you’re already a Warcraft 3 fan, this is shaping up to be the absolute best version available , and it’s a real treat to see each new model and map in action. If you’re a World of Warcraft fan who missed out, this is a great opportunity to see the beginnings of characters like Arthas, Jaina, Sylvanas, and Thrall. If you’re an RTS fan, this is a polished take on an important piece of the genre’s history. [Review-in-Progress]

Bloody Ties is a fun DLC, especially if you enjoyed the side activities in the main game, but it’s hard not to think Dying Light 2’s first expansion could have benefited from a bit more time - even after the delays - to help it live up to its full potential.

I went into Anthem with an open mind. It’s a game I wanted to succeed from a studio I’ve always been fond of. Unfortunately, it’s everything everyone feared at reveal. It’s a hollow experience that’s been designed to appeal to the widest market possible while squeezing more money out of those who are hooked in by its doggy treat design.

Those that have seen the secret ending for Kingdom Hearts 3 know that Kingdom Hearts 4 could very well be series director Tetsuya Nomura's attempt at making his vision of Versus 13 made real, but I'm so glad that we have Reynatis as another interpretation of that vision, and to be honest, I hope even more developers make their own interpretations of Versus 13. Reynatis is a reality based on fantasy, and though it's far from perfect, that's enough for me.

On occasion the open world even meshes with the existing strengths of the series to create something special. For the most part it’s a wretched attempt, however, rescued only by how fundamentally satisfying and fun the musou combat is when you strip it right down.

Classic Sonic feels like his infamous sneakers are lined with lead. Generations was decent, but in such close proximity to Sonic Mania these problems feel all the more crippling.

What Skater XL does well is make you obsess over an 8-set of stairs, or return again and again to a simple curb. You will keep going back to line up the perfect angle, the exact spot to crouch into an ollie, tre flip and land a crooked grind. That’s great, that’s street skating in its essence, and it’s an achievement to capture that. But outside of that microcosm, as soon as you pan out, it steps on its own shoelaces and stumbles into a bush.

Curse of Osiris is disappointing. There’s nothing here to tempt you in if you’re not already keen, and nothing to calm the anger of those who are – we’ll be waiting for a Taken King style re-release for the latter.

I really wanted to like Breakpoint. Ubisoft has a habit of making mediocre games – Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs – really shine with a sequel, but this is a significant step back. I would rather play Anthem – at least traversal doesn’t make me want to put my head through a window in that game.

It’s not going to win any Game of the Year awards, but if you’re looking for a fun co-op game that scratches a similar itch to something like PayDay, Rico is well worth picking up.

While it resembles its predecessors - osciliating between stealth and shooting, its domestic spaces filled with scattered stories to piece together - the results are soggier than usual. Don’t get me wrong: Redfall is a good open world FPS you can enjoy for dozens of hours with friends. But it’s a noticeable step down from the high perch occupied by Corvo and Colt. It’s the first missable Arkane game in an age.

There are golden moments here, without a doubt. But Die by the Blade is burdened by issues that I fear will stand out for many casual players interested to try it out. But as the only modern fighting game to really approach this sub-genre of 3D one-strike action perhaps it'll find its audience. I'd recommend this to genre diehards and those who don't mind a lower budget title. For the average player, I'd give this a miss for now.

As my first real foray into the silent indie adventure genre, I was pleasantly surprised.

It’s weak. It’s unambitious. It takes a license and slaps it on a distinctly average game. And then stomps on the best bits of the license so all that’s left is the cool-looking T-800 and some vague references. What’s the weakest definition of terminate? To stop. Just stop. Target stopped. The Stoppernator.

At its heart, Comrades definitely has the right ideas. It has problems that appear to largely stem from being built as an afterthought atop a single-player focused game, but many of the ideas it has for a multiplayer Final Fantasy experience are pretty strong, and there’s a particularly impressive effort to tell a proper FF story in a multiplayer setting that pans out remarkably well. Oh, and it has a lovely new theme tune by Nobuo Uematsu. If this is indeed a test for the future, it’s a solid proof of concept – if not exactly a must-play at this point in time.